Leggott is touring campuses across Canada to begin a conversation between Offices of Research, IT units, libraries and faculty about managing research data.

The topic of the presentation is “Research Data in the Digital Age: Opportunities and Challenges”:

Various international jurisdictions have embraced the fundamental value proposition of open access to the outputs of publicly funded research. This is being done for a number of reasons, including the desire to improve research practices, to stimulate more research, and to facilitate innovation and economic growth. In Canada, the support for Open Science and ‘Open by Default’ is nascent, best represented by individual projects like the one recently announced by the Montreal Neurological Institute, which has committed to release all research and data emerging from their efforts as open by default for 5 years. This session will provide the context in Canada as well as internationally, and discuss the opportunities and challenges to adopting an ‘Open by Default’ approach to the dissemination of publicly funded research. The session will encourage a discussion of issues from through the lens of researchers, funders, and groups that provide support for research data management.

RDC is an organization dedicated to supporting Canadian innovation by improving the management of research data.

RDC’s role is to bring together key stakeholders to develop strategy, facilitate communication and partnerships, promote education and training, measure progress, and bring attention to gaps. RDC also acts as single point of contact for Canada with international initiatives, ensuring engagement with appropriate stakeholders.

Created in 2011, Research Data Canada’s activities have been supported by CANARIE since 2014.

Before joining CANARIE, Mr. Leggott enjoyed a successful academic career, most recently as the University Librarian at the University of Prince Edward Island. He sat on the Tri-Agencies’ Data Management Policy Advisory Committee, and has also contributed to CANARIE’s Software Technical Advisory Committee and Federated Single Sign-On Committee.

Leggott brings business acumen and technical savvy to his considerable knowledge of the research data management ecosystem as the founder of the Islandora project, an open source digital asset management system.